Grants:PEG/WM RS/Open Wiki GLAM of Serbia/Report

Report accepted

This report for a Project and Event grant approved in FY 2011-12 has been reviewed and accepted by the Wikimedia Foundation.

To read the approved grant submission describing the plan for this project, please visit Grants:PEG/WM RS/Open Wiki GLAM of Serbia.

You may still comment on this report on its discussion page, or visit the discussion page to read the discussion about this report.
You are welcome to Email grants at wikimedia dot org at any time if you have questions or concerns about this report.

File:Open Wiki GLAM of Serbia - Logo.png

Did you comply with the requirements specified by WMF in the grant agreement? Yes.

Activities

October 2011 - attending the award-giving ceremony of the 4PI project, organized by RNIDS, where there was a presentation about Open Wiki GLAM of Serbia
November 2011 - concluding cooperation between EUnet, which resulted in free domain and hosting for the Open Wiki GLAM of Serbia wesite.
December 2011 - setting up the website and the beginning of promoting the project in the local Wikimedia comm-unity; gathering volunteers
January 2012 - translation of dozens of pages of text from the glamwiki.org website

- Sending invitations and press releases

February 2012 - participation in the program about the freedom of sharing information on the Web 2.0, organized by Infoteka of the youth center CK13, where there was a presentation about Open Wiki GLAM of Serbia

- GLAM conference

- Internal meeting

Project goal and measures of success

Project goal

This project was started with the goal of developing a cooperation between Wikimedia and GLAM institutions from Serbia, which would result in spreading free knowledge in Wikimedia projects. We also wanted to promote our chapter on a local level, but also to join the global GLAM-wiki efforts

Measures of success

While we were working on the drafts of this project, we outlined measures of success, which would require a longer time span. However, we are proud to be able to state that we have results for all three measures.

The main measure of success will be a number of future projects between GLAM organizations and Wikimedia Serbia.

During the conference itself, we were contacted by representatives of four institutions, which were eager to cooperate with us. Such prompt results tell us that the first steps towards possible successful projects have been made and that the conference had a positive impact on the audience.

One of important measures is following the visiting stats of the site devoted to GLAM institutions.

Since we wanted to present to our institutions all GLAM-wiki projects in Serbian language, on a site with Serbian interface, we decided to start up a brand new website. After only three months, we succeeded in making a site with over 100 articles and over 400 wiki pages, which were viewed about 20.000 times. We translated all the success stories, project models and case studies from the glam-wiki.org website.

Media are also an important measure of success. If this conference resonates in media, positive stories about Wikimedia Serbia and Wikimedia projects will start getting spread. That will contribute to the development of local chapters and fundraising.

We are satisfied with the number of media reports about the conference. The coldest January in the last 50 years prevented us from having a press conference. However, press releases were sent via email. Several interviews were given to local TV companies and national news agencies. The most important newspapers wrote about the conference and there were over 20 different websites that issued stories about the event.

Lessons learned

What lessons were learned that may help others succeed in similar projects?

The day after the conference, there was an internal meeting with local Wikipedians and GLAM guests from abroad. There we wanted to hear their comments about the event from the day before. Each of them wrote several comments on a piece of paper. We were surprised by the amount of positive comments. Misgivings were related mainly to the things we couldn’t control, such as cold weather or nonexistence of live streaming of the conference.

Conclusions from the conference and the meeting confirmed that cooperation between GLAM groups and community support are necessary for successful projects. Only few chapters are large enough and have enough resources to be able to work on that kind of projects all alone. Smaller chapters need support with projects that are similar or the same with the ones made by other chapters.

It is also important to stress that the inclusion of local institutions (whether they are GLAM or not) in the co-organization turned out to be a good way of developing our mission. Although Wikimedia Foundation’s Grant Program is in existence, it is necessary to search for sponsors on a local level, not only because it’s important to find funds outside of WMF, but also in order to make contacts with local institutions and thus demonstrate transparency and ability for work.

Did anything unexpected happen?

The whole organization was accompanied by various challenges. Only a day before sending invitations, organizers faced the possibility of having to choose a different venue. However, there wasn’t enough funds for that kind of luxury. In a successful negotiation action, we managed to secure several alternatives. However, the misunderstanding with the original venue (which was instigated by miscommunication regarding the schedules) was solved in time.

The weather gave a lot of troubles to the organizers. Untraversable roads prevented many guests from attending the conference. The organizers had to change a part of the program and the list of invitees, because of the changed circumstances. However, regardless of the weather, the response was satisfactory. About 160 invitations have been sent, of which about 140 were delivered. Between 110 and 120 people have registered, of which 75 were present at the conference. The fact that none of the participants or guests at the conference noticed any unexpected events should be considered a great success.

Would you do anything differently if you planned a similar project?

Even though we are generally very satisfied with the quality of the organization, taking into consideration the size of the project and the small amount of spent funds, we’ll try to work on improving our skills for some other occasion. We’d like to have translators and live streaming. Of course, that would require a larger budget.

What impact did the project have on WMF mission goals of Increased Reach, Increased Quality, Increased Credibility, Increased and Diversified Participation?

Every GLAM project and program brings better quality and stronger interest for the development of these topics and Wikimedia projects that are directly or indirectly related to the GLAM institutions. The sole cooperation between local chapters and GLAM institutions raises the importance of WMF on a local level and opens op possibilities for deeper cooperation and new goals

Reporting and documentation of expenditures

Documentation of expenditures has been received by WMF.

The funds remaining from this grant in the amount of {{{amount}}} were deducted from another grant payment for [[{{{submission}}}]].

Did you send WMF documentation of all expenses paid for with grant funds?

Along with this report, the WMF was sent the specification of the bill, with descriptions and values in Serbian Dinars and USD, according to the medium exchange rate at the date of the creation of the bill. Also, a scanned copy of all receipts and bills was sent.

Details of expenditures:

Red 29% – Transportation of goods and passengers; Green 11% – Accommodation;Blue 21% – Food and Drink; Orange 15% – Printing; Purple 7% – Bank fees and accounting service; Yellow 2% – Gifts; Pink 15% – Other

No:	Description	Price in RSD
1	Transportation of goods and passengers	75,170.46
2	Accommodation	29,418.00
3	Food and drinks	53,544.38
4	Printing (invitations, program leaflets promotional materials and posters for venue ...)	40,018.38
5	Bank and accounting services	19,000.00
6	Gifts	4,856,00
7	Name tags	3,292.20
8	Internet	6,000.00
9	Printer, Cables & Flipchart table	30,302.01
	Subtotal	Funds spent in RSD: 261,601.25 Funds spent in USD: 3.191,61
	Approved: 4,000.00 USD	Surplus: 807.49 USD

Bear in mind that there is a surplus because of organizer’s wishes to find additional partners and sponsors, even though there was a confirmed grant and enough allocated funds, in order to save WMF money and redirect it towards other projects, but also because of the wish to create business relations with local partners

Will you be requesting re-allocation of remaining grant funding?

Yes. Wikimedia Serbia and its GLAM team have a wish to continue the promotion of GLAM cooperation with local institutions and because of that additional funds are needed. Successful conference was a first step where institutions had an opportunity to familiarize themselves with us. It is now necessary to continue the negotiations and start projects in order to fulfill our GLAM mission. These funds would represent the GLAM budget for the next six months (promotional materials, print and papers, travel, meetings with GLAM institutions).